Cyberponcho's logbook

Friday, December 8, 2017

After about 6 months of testing and shortly after upgrading my system to version 17.0.2 codename 'Gellivara' I thought it was time to post my experience with this distro.

For those who don't know or are not yet familiar with Manjaro Linux, this is an user-friendly operating system based on the Arch Linux distro, targeted to the less tech-savvy user, for more information, distro download and more visit the oficial Manjaro Linux site here.

Being Arch based, Manjaro is a rolling release, which means no big updates every year or so like other big distros, a rolling distro updates more often (automagically!) so you always have the latest version of the operating system and software under the hood.

After downloading and booting the live distro, you're greeted by 'Manjaro Hello' with links to the homepage, documentation, forums and chat room as well as a guide to help the user find his way around and provides very good information about the installation process.

Manjaro with the official XFCE desktop enviroment.

Installing is a straight forward process with Calamares, the graphical installer, the official Manjaro release brings the choice of a pre-configured XFCE, Plasma or Gnome desktop. In my case, I'm using the gorgeous looking Deepin graphical environment.

Arch Linux is not a distro for beginners, installing and configuring Arch means a lot of coding and command line work, which is the main reason why many users don't dare trying Arch Linux in my opinion. Calamares is a great tool and a big help for those wanting to try an Arch Linux based distro without having to code and build the operating system from the ground up, kudos Manjaro team : )

While XFCE is Manjaro's 'Flagship' desktop environment, you can pretty much install any desktop environment available out there, the Manjaro community offers their own versions with the likes of Cinnamon, Lxde and more.

What are the advantages of Manjaro? Contrary to Arch Linux, once the user boots the live environment, it can be used right away, and installing is a breeze through the graphical installer, another user-friendly feature is the pre installation of popular software and good hardware recognizance which gives the user a great out of the box experience.

Wednesday, March 8, 2017

After testing Elementary OS I though I would take a break from distro testing and concentrate on my next project, unfortunately my geek heart just can't stand still so I started to look for another test candidate, this time is Zorin OS to show what it can.

Tagged as 'One of the best Linux distros available' and 'Best replacement for both Windows and Mac' it sounded very promising so I downloaded the latest release, made a bootable USB stick and I was ready to test.

First impresion is a very clean, Gnome powered, friendly and for those coming straight from a windows enviroment, very familiar desktop which reminds a lot to Win xp or Win 7, alternative you have the normal Gnome desktop in the Core version and the Ultimate version offers a Mac and a Unity like desktop enviroments plus a few more goodies which are not included in the Core version.

The default Zorin OS desktop.

Under the hood is Ubuntu 16.04 LTS, which means stability, long time support and 5 year updates.

The out of the box applications include libre office, chromium, gimp and a preinstalled wine (which unfortunately didn't work for me, more on this soon)
A big plus from Zorin was setting up my printer. I have a HP multi-function device connected to our home network via wlan, Zorin found it within seconds and in less than 2 minutes i was all set, it was even easier than setting it up on windows!
Unfortunately there are also minus points, libre office kept crashing while I did some light office work and if i had more than 5-6 programs open at the same time i noticed some lag in the overall performance, probably updating will solve the problem(s)
In a nutshell, ZorinOS is a good looking, stable and fast Linux operating system which is worth a try.

Thursday, November 10, 2016

Some love him, some curse him, some call him a visionaire, some call him a monster and an arrogant a**hole, stock markets worldwide were shaken and went back up overnight, people freaked out, cried, panic broke loose and doomsayers started calling "Black tuesday" and even predicting the 3rd world war.

Politicians are predators, and politicians on campaign and the dirtiest and most dangerous predators one could think of, they will dig into the enemy's dirty laundry, find out their best kept secrets and weaknesses and use it against him/her, this is modern political campaign warfare.

All of a sudden Trump was accused of sexual harassment, -he touched my breast back in 1984- or -he put his hand under my skirt- he did? maybe he did, maybe he didn't, one thing is for sure, the more powerful your position is and the richer you are, the easier it is for you to put your hand where you should not. Just think of all these people that would do "anything" to land a good job, climb to a higher position in a business or to get an exclusive interview with a famous superstar.

In today's society it happens, and it happens more often than we think, but nobody talks about it... until someone can use this accusations to damage someone's image.

How many people accused Barack Obama of drug abuse in the past as he was running for president? He admitted having smoked pot and done cocaine, nevertheless he became the first afro-american president in the history of the USA, won the peace Nobel prize and was reelected again.

Remember Ronald Reagan? a Hollywood actor will never be president, some said, but in spite of that he was elected governor of California, was reelected in 1970 and after unsuccessfully running twice for president in 1968 and 1976 he was finally elected president in 1980 and was reelected for the following period.

At this point it's worth adding how similar Reagan and Trump are, they were both outsiders who weren't taken seriously as presidential candidates, but they were both driven by this passion for what they believe in, and that's probably one key factor for Trump's victory.

Don't get me wrong, i wasn't pro-Trump myself (although the other candidate wasn't really a better option to be honest) my point is, he won, we're now stuck with him, note that i say 'we' because even though i don't live in the USA and i didn't vote for either one of them, the world's become so small and countries are so connected to each other that his victory will have mayor influence worldwide.

So people, quit complaining, accept your loss, try to see the positive side and give the man a chance, after all, you have no choice, do you?

Tuesday, October 18, 2016

Elementary OS, codename Loki, is a light weight distro with a simple but beautiful OS X like interface, it's based on Ubuntu 16.04 LTS and it's packed with lightweight applications for most tasks, aditional software can be installed with a few mouseclicks from the easy to use Software Center.

So what's new?

Check the official developer's blog to read what's new on the new release.

Elementary would be the first choice for users looking for a minimalistic but good looking distribution. The system is based on Ubuntu LTS but uses it's own desktop interface called Pantheon.

I installed an early release on my notebook a while ago, just because i didn't (couldn't?) wait for the official release scheduled for Sep 2016, my first test drive wasn't very positive, many bugs, things missing and a frozen screen didn't make me a good impresion.

But hey, don't forget this was an early test release and not the official one, so bugs belong to the daily agenda, so I went back to pure Ubuntu and (un)patiently waited for the official release.

Was it worth the wait? Hell yeah!!

Same as Freya, Loki follows the minimalistic one-app-per-task approach. It's not a surprice anymore that the developers inspiration comes from Mac OS, basically they take what they consider to be the positive qualities of Cupertino's OS and build it on Elementary, the result is a gorgeous looking, clean and easy to use operating system.

A clean, good looking desktop comes out of the box.

Thanks to this keep-it-simple-stupid (no ofense!) philosophy, it takes very little to no time for the average user to get used to the enviroment, there are no multiple menus or complicated settings.

Being Ubuntu based, installing is a breeze with Ubiquity which was taken over without a lot of modifications, updates and third party software can be installed during the installation, the partitioner offers the option to encrypt the hard drive or use LVM and the whole process is fully automated.

In a nutshell, Elementary Loki is easy to use, good looking and being Ubuntu based you can install additional software to suit your needs, the new Epiphany browser is lightweight and should be enough for the average user but power users should go ahead and install their favorite browser.

Welcome!

The Internet has changed the way we work, live and communicate. The 'Snail mail' became obsolete and it's been replaced by e-mail, in a matter of seconds you can send text, images and sound to anyone, no matter if it's your neighbour next door or a far friendship sitting on the other side of the planet, the Internet makes it possible with incredible speed and efficiency.

Nowadays anybody is capable of having a presence on the internet, from the big enterprise's homepage and intranet having hundreds of terabytes of information spread across continents to the small business in the middle of nowhere to the individual who owns and writes on his blog on a regular basis and just wants to tell the world 'here i am'.

I am one of those individuals, and this is my blog/webpage, whatever you want to name it :-) here i will post thoughts, internet-related topics, info about Linux and open source, distro testing, links to other sites and a bit of my personal life.

I hope you enjoy your visit, find some useful information and please leave a comment, will be very appreciated.